Kevin Madden and Jen Psaki discuss Mitt Romney and his failed bid for the presidency with John Dickerson at the Washington Ideas Forum 2012.

John Dickerson

John Dickerson is Slate magazine’s chief political correspondent and a political analyst for CBS News. He is also author of On Her Trail, a book about his mother and pioneering newswoman, the late Nancy Dickerson. He has written extensively about the 2008 campaign, the Obama presidency and the tumultuous 2010 campaign. He is also the author of an in-depth series of articles about risk-takers. Prior to joining Slate, Dickerson covered politics for twelve years for TIME magazine. The last four of those years, he was the magazine’s White House correspondent and previously, Capitol Hill correspondent. Dickerson has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Postand Men’s Vogue. At CBS News he has guest-hosted “Face the Nation” several times.

Kevin Madden

Kevin Madden is Executive Vice President of Public Affairs of JDA Frontline, a public affairs firm with offices in Washington, D.C. and Charleston, S.C.

Prior to joining JDA Frontline, Mr. Madden was a Managing Director with The Glover Park Group, a leading public affairs firm based in Washington D.C.

Most notably, during the 2008 election cycle, Mr. Madden served as National Press Secretary and Senior Communications Strategist for Governor Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

Prior to joining Governor Romney’s campaign, Mr. Madden served as Press Secretary to then-House Majority Leader and now-House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). In that capacity, Mr. Madden served as a top communications strategist for the House of Representatives leadership office charged with directing legislative action on a wide range of issues including financial services, energy, national security, legal reform, transportation and telecommunications policy among others.

Before his work as a top leadership aide on Capitol Hill, Mr. Madden served as the Department of Justice’s national spokesman on issues ranging from national security to litigation before the federal courts.

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Mr. Madden was a member of the communications team directing President George W. Bush’s re-election effort, serving as the president’s campaign spokesman for regional, national and international news organizations.

Mr. Madden originally hails from Yonkers, N.Y. and now resides in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer Psaki

Jen Psaki is Senior Vice President and Managing Director at Global Strategy Group (GSG), where she also runs the firm’s Washington DC office. Prior to joining GSG, Psaki served as deputy press secretary and then deputy communications director in the Obama White House, where she was a national spokesperson for the President and Administration policy. Psaki was an early member of the President’s campaign staff, having joined his team in 2007 in the role of traveling press secretary. In the 2006 electoral cycle, Psaki worked as regional communications director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee under the direction of Rahm Emanuel, a year in which the Democrats won many hotly contested seats and secured a majority in the House.

Before that, Psaki served as Iowa deputy communications director and then national deputy press secretary for the Kerry for President Campaign. Prior to that, she worked as communications director for Congressman Joseph Crowley, and on the re-election campaign of Governor Tom Vilsack and Senator Tom Harkin. A graduate of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, Psaki grew up in Stamford, Connecticut. She currently resides in Washington, DC, with her husband Greg.